As others have stated, the flying circles have been in City Park since the early 60s. Our club, the Ring Masters Flying Club, has maintained the area for many years. We cut the grass and take care of weed control and work closely with park officials to make improvements to not only the field area but also the shell road leading to the field. We have had the Boy Scouts to the field to work with us on various improvements to the area. Many people like to stop briefly and talk with us to learn more about the hobby and watch the planes go through their aerobatic maneuvers. The area is also used on certain days as a dog training area.Mike Griffin

I have been flying Control Line model airplanes with my dad since 1956 and have my original Ringmaster. I have flown in a open field between Audubon Park and Childrens Hospital, the Lakefront Control Line model airplane field and for several years beginning in 1961 at the designed CL field in City Park. As my dad passed, I lost interest in the hobby and moved to a private pilots licence. About 4 years ago, my interest in CL flying was renewed as I found myself at the City Park CL flying field. As I fly model airplanes today, wonderful memories of my dad and I flying as a team come to me. I encourage parents to come to the field with their sons and daughters on a Sunday afternoon and join the fun of flying a Control Line model airplane.

The fact is the flying field has been in City Park since the early 1960s, long before the forest was there. The flying field was built and is intended to be used as a control line flying field as it is today. When built, the forest was not there. In fact, it was all cleared back past the hill with the exception of the few very large oaks. The front part of the forest along Mona Lisa road was actually open gravel parking. Having said this I would like to point out that when the park is open, the loud music played by the soccer and baseball teams on the other side of the forest and on Scout Island is much more invasive than anything done at the flying field. Another point is, the flying field is only two acres of the over 1,300 acres that is City Park. I am quite sure there are many, many places to see birds in the other 1,298 acres.

In 1961, this controline model airplane flying field was moved from the lakefront area to City Park by Louis Roussel Jr. who was President of the New Orleans Levee Board at the time, and then N. O. Mayor Victor Schiro dedicated the field to WW II Pilot Charles Donnally soon after. Since then, members of our model club has taken care of the area with the blessing of NOCP, cutting the grass and improving the grounds at no cost to the Park. Today, while we are flying our models, people walk thru the area and ask us about the circles, the models we fly, the hobby and it’s history. Not one negative comment has been made.It must be said now that the NOCP does not allow any R/C models or quadcopters anywhere in the Park. Our control line models never leave the flying area.So to complain we are scaring the birds away with our models is unfair. Birds are mobile and will go to where the food source is. The Park encompasses over 1300 acres and we only use two acres, a few hours a week.

Why put a model airplane flying field in the middle of one of the only wooded, quiet nature trails in New Orleans? The loud buzzing of model planes is the last thing you want to hear on a hike.